THE ANAtomy of A CV

Between 2017 and 2020, Puolison Polku Hanke has been giving more than 60 personal guidance sessions. During these one-on-one meetings, but also during our events and trainings, participants had most of the time questions on how to concretely make a CV and how to adapt it to the Finnish job market.Here is therefore a checklist on how to make a CV, with tips and advice based on our experience at Familia, and the most common questions that our clients have had. In Finland, a CV is supposed to be between 1 to 3 pages. We would advise you to keep it on single page if possible, depending of course on your work experience. Your resume should be easy to read and have enough details so that it “speaks” to the recruiter.

WHO ARE YOU?

The way your CV looks and the first personal details that you give will be the first impression that you make on the recruiter.

Contact details

Social media. Based on the position you’re applying to, it can be a good idea to link your LinkedIn profile, or even maybe a professional Instagram or Twitter.

Your email. Try to have an email address that matches your name.

Your phone number. Give a phone number that you are sure you can be reached on. If for some reason you are using a foreign phone number, remember to write the correct country code. Try to avoid giving your spouse’s phone number.

Your address. Write the complete address, with the city and postal area code.

Write your name. In Finland, we write the first name and then the surname.

Personal information

When it comes to personal information, sending a CV in a new country might seem complicated. Should you put a picture? Should you talk about your nationality or family situation

Your picture. Usually in Finland, CVs do have a picture on them. This picture has to look as professional as possible. Several services offer free professional pictures for your CV. TE toimisto in particular can help you for this. At least, make sure that the picture is showing only your head, and that it is clearly not a picture that has been cropped.

Driving license. If a car might be needed or appreciated in the position, mention your driving license.

Nationality, age, family relations, gender are personal information that may not always be relevant or necessary on your CV and are not compulsory. This is based on your own judgement and how this information can support your application. For many of our participants, mentioning their Finnish spouse and their intercultural family has been a good way to introduce themselves and the reason why they are in Finland in their CV profile or cover letter.

Our participants have often wondered if putting a picture could increase the risk of being discriminated against. Anonymous CV are debated currently in Finland and discrimination during recruitment is a reality on the Finnish job market. Our answer has often been “if they don’t discriminate based on your name or picture on the CV, they will at the interview if they are discriminatory”.

WHAT HAVE YOU STUDIED?

The education part of a CV is often a difficult part to write down for our participants. The most important thing to keep in mind is that if you haven’t been studying in Finland, you should make sure that your studies are clearly understandable. The education section of a resume is important, even if you haven’t gone to upper education. Detail each degree or level. In this section you can add courses that you took, certifications, shorter degrees and trainings.

Your degrees. Write the name of the degree, the year of completion, the school, city and country. Then, make sure to describe briefly the content of your studies.

WHERE HAVE YOU WORKED?The work experience section in a CV in Finland is very important and has specific characteristics. The most important one is that your work experience section is expected to be clear, precise and with concrete content.

The job description should give your title and the name of your employer, the dates of employment and the town/country. Make sure to describe the progress of what you have been doing, especially if the position was abroad. If your responsibilities have evolved, make sure that it appears.

In Finland, your CV is expected to be detailing your tasks, responsibilities and results. Do not list areas of work but focus on explaining what you have done using action verbs. Describing your results is also advised, especially if you’ve had high or managerial positions. Make it as concrete as possible with numbers and concrete examples. This applies to any kind of jobs, here are a few examples:

I coordinated a project in which we recruited more than 50 new volunteers in 2 years.

I developed a software that allows the company to increase its benefits by 3%.

I worked in close cooperation with the chef and was part of a team serving more than 60 cleints a day.”

If the company is not well known in your sector/in Finland, you can add relevant information about it.

WHAT ARE YOUR SKILLSWhen presenting your skills, your goal is to make clear to the employer what it is that you can use on a concrete level to do your job. Depending on your background and industry, these skills might be very precise. This is the place to use technical language if needed.

IT

You can use categories if necessary. If you work in IT, it is perfectly accepted that you attach the list of your IT skills on a separate document.

List the programs that you can use and your proficiency levels. It is quite common to mention here your level in the pack office programs. The mention “ daily use of internet” is not common at all. List all the tools that you can use and feel free to write one sentence to describe your level of proficiency as well as the context that you’ve been using them if relevant to the position.

LANGUAGE

List all the languages that you can use. All languages matter, don’t forget to mention the ones that you are currently learning.

If you have lived abroad, had a language specific work or study environment, if you’ve taken courses or specific certifications, make sure to also mention it.

Regarding levels of proficiency, make sure to assess them realistically. Do not overestimate or exaggerate, but do not devaluate them either. “Beginner” to “native” is usually a common scale. Depending on your own skills and the position, you can also assess your level in writing and speaking.

OTHER SKILLS

Here you can mention trainings, courses and other specific skills. Make sure to write the year you took it, it’s length, the training organization. If you’ve been doing the integration course, make sure to include it here.

Make sure it is clear for a Finnish reader! No abbreviations explain the awards etc, no non-industry related lingo. Your CV should list everything relevant that you’ve done and be clear enough to be understood right away by a Finnish recruiter.

Don’t lie or exaggerate!In many countries, It is often common to use superlatives such as “extremely skilled” or “perfectly competent”. In Finnish work culture, these superlatives are to be avoided as much as possible and to be changed with concrete numbers or examples that will speak by themselves. It is also quite common in many countries to exaggerate the information given in the resume to get to the next stage of the interview. We would advise you to avoid doing this, as most Finnish recruiters will be reluctant to consider taking you further in the recruiting process if they realize that you have exaggerated on certain skills and that they can’t trust you. Trust is one of the main values in Finnish work culture. In some countries the ability to sell oneself is more valued than the actual skills levels, considered to always be improvable. In Finland, honesty and facts are more valued than a good use of words and superlatives.

Be ready to justify! Papers, references, quotes.In continuation to the previous point, make sure that you can justify anything that you state on your resume. Finnish recruiters, especially if you are looking for your first job, might ask for your degrees or proofs of your employment history.

In Finnish or in English?This depends a lot on the sector and position that you’re applying to. For low skilled jobs, we would advise you to write your resume in Finnish and have a native speaker help you to spell check it. You can be helped by your spouse, a friend or social workers in associations or TE-offices. For higher skilled jobs, our advice would be to write your resume by yourself. If you manage autonomously to write a resume in Finnish, have it checked by a native Finnish speaker for spelling mistakes. If you can’t, avoid having someone else writing it for you. If your level in the interview doesn’t match the image you gave in your resume and over letter, the effect on the recruiter will most probably be distrust.You can read more about this topic in our article “Fluent Finnish needed”.

How should it look like?

Your resume should have such a layout that makes it possible to grasp at once the main information.

Avoid long paragraphs and make sure to have a font and colors that make the reading easy.

Check the spelling mistakes.

Should I list my hobbies and volunteering experiences?Listing your hobbies is quite common on resumes in Finland. Make sure to also mention any responsibilities that you may have held related to them. Volunteering, especially if you don’t have any work experience, is valuable information to add on a resume.

Should I include references?Based on our experience, we would definitely encourage foreigners applying for a job in Finland to include references in their resume. References from abroad are unfortunately not as valuable as references in Finland. The goal of a reference is to “vouch” for you. The Finnish job market being quite small and relying massively on networking, the importance of references is indubitably. Make sure to mention the person’s name, his/her contact details and title. Always ask first before adding someone as a reference on your resume. We would advice you to have a list of five or six people, and only pick 3 of them on your resume, based on the position you’re applying to. If you don’t have work experience in Finland and therefore no professional references, use the people you’ve met through your hobbies, volunteering, mentoring programs. Quotes from your colleagues back in your country are also a good option. References can also be people from your industry, who can review your resume and/or cover letter and tell you how accurate it is based on what is common in the industry. In general, we advise you to ask for comments and insights from people already working in the field that you are planning to apply to.

Should I mention my family situation / my parental leave?Mentioning your family in your description either on a resume or a cover letter can be risky. Most of the time, we would advise you not to. Nevertheless, it can be a very good and honest way to explain why you are in Finland. In that case, we would advise that you include it in your description rather than listing it with your personal information.Mentioning your children and parental leave is totally up to you but can not in any case be required or asked about by the employer. If you consider that this is a relevant information to explain a gap in your resume for example, feel free to mention it, but know that you absolutely don’t have to. In some cases, people have had a specific category on their resume “work leave” where they have listed the time they were of the job market and what they were doing instead (study leave, parental leave, integration course). This can be an option if you feel that it is relevant in your case and for this specific application.